The Modern Regime Volume I Part 16

[Footnote 2301: De Tocqueville, "L'Ancien regime et la Revolution." p.

64 and following pages, also p.354 and following pages.--"The Ancient Regime," p. 368.]

[Footnote 2302: "The Revolution," I., book I., especially pp. 16, 17, 55, 61, 62-65. (Laffont I., 326, 354, 357 to 360.)]

[Footnote 2303: "The Ancient Regime," pp.--36-59. (Laff. I. pp. 33-48.)]

[Footnote 2304: Ibid., pp. 72-77. (Laff. I. pp. 59 to 61.)]

[Footnote 2305: Ibid., pp. 78-82. (Laff. I. pp. 50-52)]

[Footnote 2306: Cf. Frederic Ma.s.son, "Le Marquis de Grignan," vol. I.]

[Footnote 2307: "The Revolution," I., p. 161 and following pages; II., book VI., ch. I., especially p. 80 and following pages. (Laffont I. 428 to 444, 632 and II 67 to 69.)]

[Footnote 2308: Ibid., I., P.193 and following pages, and p.226 and following pages.(Ed. Laffont. I. 449 to 452, 473 to 481.)]

[Footnote 2309: "Souvenirs", by PASQUIER (Etienne-Dennis, duc), chancelier de France. in VI volumes, Librarie Plon, Paris 1893. I., 148 (in relation to the inst.i.tution prefects and sub-prefects): "The perceptible good resulting from this change was the satisfaction arising from being delivered in one day from a herd of insignificant men, mostly without any merit or shadow of capacity and to who the administration of department and arrondiss.e.m.e.nt had been surrendered for the past ten years. As nearly all of them sprung from the lowest ranks in society, they were only the more disposed to make the weight of their authority felt."]

[Footnote 2310: Guyot, "Repertoire de jurisprudence" (1785), article King: "It is a maxim of feudal law that the veritable ownership of lands, the domain, dir.e.c.t.u.m dominium, is vested in the dominant seignior or suzerain. The domain in use, belonging to the va.s.sal or tenant, affords him really no right except to its produce."]

[Footnote 2311: Luchaire," Histoire des inst.i.tutions monarchiques de la France sous les premiers Capetiens," I., 28, 46. (Texts of Henry I., Philip I., Louis VI., and Louis VII.) "A divine minister."--(Kings are) "servants of the kingdom of G.o.d."--"Gird on the ecclesiastical sword for the punishment of the wicked."--"Kings and priests alone, by ecclesiastical ordination, are made sacred by the anointing of holy oils."]

[Footnote 2312: "The Revolution," III., p.94. (Laffont II, p. 75)]

[Footnote 2313: Janssen, "L'Allemagne a la fin du moyen age" (French translation), I., 457. (On the introduction of Roman law into Germany.)--Declaration of the jurists at the Diet of Roncaglia: "Quod principi placuit, legis habet vigorem."--Edict of Frederick I., 1165: "Vestigia praedecessorum suorum, divorum imperatorum, magni Constantini scilicet et Justiniani et Valentini,... sacras eorum leges,...

divina oracula.... Quodc.u.mque imperator const.i.tuerit, vel cognoscens decreverit, vel edicto praeceperit, legem esse constat."--Frederick II.: "Princeps legibus solutus est."--Louis of Bavaria: "Nos qui sumus supra jus."]

[Footnote 2314: Guyot, ibid., article Regales. "The great 'regales,'

majora regalia, are those which belong to the King, jure singulari et proprio, and which are incommunicable to another, considering that they cannot be divorced from the scepter, being the attributes of sovereignty, such as... the making of laws, the interpretation or change of these, the last appeal from the decisions of magistrates, the creation of offices, the declaration of war or of peace,... the coining of money, the augmentation of t.i.tles or of values, the imposition of taxes on the subjects,... the exemption of certain persons from these, the award of pardon for crimes,... the creation of n.o.bles, the foundation of universities,... the a.s.sembling of the etats-generaux or provinciaux, etc."--Bossuet, "Politique tiree de l'ecriture sainte": The entire state exists in the person of the prince."--Louis XIV., "aeuvres,"

I., 50 (to his son): "You should be aware that kings can naturally dispose fully and freely of all possessions belonging as well to persons of the church as to laymen, to make use of at all times with wise economy, that is to say, according to the general requirements of their government."--Sorel, "L'Europe et la Revolution francaise," I., 231 (Letter of the "intendant" Foucault): "It is an illusion, which cannot proceed from anything but blind preoccupation, that of making any distinction between obligations of conscience and the obedience which is due to the King."]

[Footnote 2315: "The Ancient Regime," p.9 and following pages.--"Correspondance de Mirabeau et du Comte de le Marck," II., 74 (Note by Mirabeau, July 3, 1790): "Previous to the present revolution, royal authority was incomplete: the king was compelled to humor his n.o.bles, to treat with the parliaments,, to be prodigal of favors to the court."]

[Footnote 2316: "The Revolution," III., p.318. (Laff.II. p. 237-238).--"

The Ancient Regime," p. 10 (Laff. I. 25n.) Speech by the Chancellor Seguier, 1775: "Our kings have themselves declared that they are fortunately powerless to attack property."]

[Footnote 2317: Rousseau's text in the "Contrat Social."--On the meaning and effect of this principle cf "The Revolution," I., 217 and following pages, and III., book VI., ch. I. Laff. 182-186 et II. 47 to 74).]

[Footnote 2318: The opinion, or rather the resignation which confers omnipotence on the central power, goes back to the second half of the fifteenth century, after the Hundred Years' war, and is due to that war; the omnipotence of the king was then the only refuge against the English invaders, and the ravages of the ecorcheurs.--Cf. Fortescue, "In leges Angliae," and" "The Difference between an Absolute and a Limited Monarchy" (end of the fifteenth century), on the difference at this date between the English and the French government.--The same decision is found in the dispatches of the Venetian amba.s.sadors of this date: "In France everything is based on the will of the king. n.o.body, whatever might be his conscientious scruples, would dare express an opinion opposed to his. The French respect their king to such an extent that they would not only sacrifice their property for him, but again their souls." (Janssen, "L'Allemagne a la fin du moyen age. I. 484.)--As to the pa.s.sage of the monarchical to the democratic idea, we see it plainly in the following quotations from Restif de la Bretonne: "I entertained no doubt that the king could legally oblige any man to give me his wife or his daughter, and everybody in my village (Sacy in Burgundy) thought so too." ("Monsieur Nicolas," I., 443.)--In relation to the September ma.s.sacres: "No, I do not pity them, those fanatical priests... When a community or its majority wants anything, it is right. The minority is always culpable, even when right morally. Common sense is that is needed to appreciate that truth. It is indisputable that the nation has the power to sacrifice even an innocent person." ("Nuits de Paris," XVth, p.377.)]

[Footnote 2319: "The Revolution," III., 393. (Laff. II. p. 291)]

[Footnote 2320: "Contrat Social," book 1st, ch. III.: "It is accordingly essential that, for the enunciation of the general will, no special organization should exist in the State, and that the opinion of each citizen should accord with that. Such was the unique and sublime law of the great Lycurgus."]

[Footnote 2321: "The Revolution," I., 170. (Laff. I. 433.)]

[Footnote 2322: Ibid., II., 93; III., 78-82. (Laff. I. p. 632 and II.

pp. 65-68.)]

[Footnote 2323: "Correspondance de Mirabeau et du Comte de la Marck,"II., 74 (Letter of Mirabeau to the King, July 3, 1790): "Compare the new state of things with the ancient regime.... One portion of the acts of the national a.s.sembly (and that the largest) is evidently favorable to monarchical government. Is it to have nothing, then, to have no parliaments, no provincial governments, no privileged cla.s.ses, no clerical bodies, no n.o.bility? The idea of forming one body of citizens would have pleased Richelieu: this equalized surface facilitates the exercise of power. Many years of absolute rule could not have done so much for royal authority as this one year of revolution."--Sainte-Beuve, "Port-Royal," V., 25 (M. Harlay conversing with the superieure of Port-Royal): "People are constantly talking about Port-Royal, about these Port-Royal gentlemen: the King dislikes whatever excites talk. Only lately he caused M. Arnaud to be informed that he did not approve of the meetings at his house; that there is no objection to his seeing all sorts of people indifferently like everybody else, but why should certain persons always be found in his rooms and such an intimate a.s.sociation among these gentlemen?... The King does not want any rallying point; a headless a.s.semblage in a State is always dangerous."--Ibid., p.33: "The reputation of this establishment was too great. People were anxious to put their children in it. Persons of rank sent theirs there. Everybody expressed satisfaction with it. This provided it with friends who joined those of the establishment and who together formed a platoon against the State. The King would not consent to this: he regarded such unions as dangerous in a State."]

[Footnote 2324: "Napoleon Ire et ses lois civiles," by Honore Perouse, 280: Words of Napoleon: "I have for a long time given a great deal of thought and calculation to the re-establishment of the social edifice.

I am to-day obliged to watch over the maintenance of public liberty. I have no idea of the French people becoming serfs."--"The prefects are wrong in straining their authority."--"The repose and freedom of citizens should not depend on the exaggeration or arbitrariness of a mere administrator."--"Let authority be felt by the people as little as possible and not bear down on them needlessly."--(Letters of January 15, 1806, March 6, 1807, January 12, 1809, to Fouche, and of March 6, 1807, to Regnault.)--Thibaudeau, "Memoires sur le Consulat," P. 178 (Words of the first consul before the council of state): "True civil liberty depends on the security of property. In no country can the rate of the tax-payer be changed every year. A man with 3000 francs income does not know how much he will have left to live on the following year; his entire income may be absorbed by the a.s.sessment on it... A mere clerk, with a dash of his pen, may overcharge you thousands of francs...

Nothing has ever been done in France in behalf of real estate. Whoever has a good law pa.s.sed on the cadastre (official valuation of all the land in France) will deserve a statue."]

[Footnote 2325: Honore Perouse, Ibid, 274 (Speech of Napoleon to the council of state on the law on mines):" "Myself, with many armies at my disposition, I could not take possession of any one's field, for the violation of the right of property in one case would be violating it in all. The secret is to have mines become actual property, and hence sacred in fact and by law."--Ibid., 279:" "What is the right of property? It is not only the right of using but, again, of abusing it.

... One must always keep in mind the advantage of owning property.

The best protection to the owner of property is the interest of the individual; one may always rely on his activity.... A government makes a great mistake in trying to be too paternal; liberty and property are both ruined by over-solicitude."--"If the government prescribes the way in which property shall be used it no longer exists.".--Ibid., 284 (Letters of Aug.21 and Sept. 7, 1809, on expropriations by public authority): "It is indispensable that the courts should supervise, stop expropriation, receive complaints of and guarantee property-owners against the enterprises of our prefects, our prefecture councils and all other agents.... Expropriation is a judicial proceeding.... I cannot conceive how France can have proprietors if anybody can be deprived of his field simply by an administrative decision."--In relation to the ownership of mines, to the cadastre, to expropriation, and to the portion of property which a man might bequeath, Napoleon was more liberal than his jurists. Madame de Stael, "Dix annees d'exil," ch.

XVIII. (Napoleon conversing with the tribune Gallois): "Liberty consists of a good civil code, while modern nations care for nothing but property."--"Correspondance," letter to Fouche, Jan. 15, 1805. (This letter gives a good summary of his ideas on government.) "In France, whatever is not forbidden is allowed, and nothing can be forbidden except by the laws, by the courts, or police measures in all matters relating to public order and morality."]

[Footnote 2326: Roederer, "aeuvres completes," III., 339 (Speech by the First Consul, October 21, 1800): "Rank, now, is a recompense for every faithful service--the great advantage of equality, which has converted 20,000 lieutenancies, formerly useless in relation to emulation, into the legitimate ambition and honorable reward of 400,000 soldiers."--Lafayette, "Memoires," V., 350: "Under Napoleon, the soldiers said, he has been promoted King of Naples, of Holland, of Sweden, or of Spain, as formerly it was said that a than had been promoted sergeant in this or that company."]

[Footnote 2327: "The Ancient Regime," book I., ch.2, the Structure of Society, especially pp.19-21. (Laff. I. p. 21-22)]

[Footnote 2328: Memorial de Sainte-Helene"--Napoleon, speaking of his imperial organization, said that he had made the most compact government, one with the quickest circulation and the most nervous energy, that ever existed. And, he remarked, nothing but this would have answered in overcoming the immense difficulties around us, and for effecting the wonderful things we accomplished. The organization of prefectures, their action, their results, were admirable and prodigious.

The same impulsion affected at the same time more than forty millions of men, and, aided by centers of local activity, the action was as rapid at every extremity as at the heart."]

[Footnote 2329: "The Ancient Regime," book III., chs. 2 and 3. (Laff. I, pp. 139 to 151 and pp. 153 to 172.)]

[Footnote 2330: Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," chs. I, 2, 3, and 13.--Duruy, "Histoire des Romains" (ill.u.s.trated edition), tenth period, chs. 82, 83, 84, and 85; twelfth period, chs. 95 and 99; fourteenth period, ch. 104.--(The reader will find in these two excellent works the texts and monuments indicated to which it is necessary to resort for a direct and satisfactory impression.)]

[Footnote 2331: See in Plutarch (Principles of Political Government) the situation of a Greek city under the Antonines.]

[Footnote 2332: Gibbon, ch. 10.--Duruy, ch. 95. (Decrease of the population of Alexandria under Gallien, according to the registers of the alimentary inst.i.tution, letter of the bishop Dionysius.)]

[Footnote 2333: "Digest," I., 4, I.: "Quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem, utpote, c.u.m lege regia, quae de imperio ejus lata est, populus ei et in eum omne suum imperium et potestatem conferat. Quodc.u.mque igitur imperator per epistolam et subscriptionem statuit, vel cognoscens decrevit, vel de plano interlocutus est, vel edicto praecepit, legis habet vigorem." (Extracts from Ulpian.)--Gaius, Inst.i.tutes, I., 5: "Quod imperator const.i.tuit, non dubium est quin id vicem legis obtineat, quum ipse imperator per legem imperium obtineat."]

[Footnote 2334: "Digest," I, 2. (Extracts from Ulpian): "Jus est a just.i.tia appellatum; nam, ut eleganter Celsus definit, jus est ars boni et aequi. Cujus merito quis nos sacerdotes appellat: just.i.tiam namque colimus, et boni et aequi not.i.tiam profitemur, aequum ab iniquo separantes, licitum ab illicito discernentes,... veram, nisi fallor, philosophiam, non simulatam affectantes.... Juris praecepta sunt haec: honeste vivere, alterum non laedere, suum cuique tribuere."--cf. Duruy, 12th period, ch. 87.]

[Footnote 2335: Cf., on this immemorial principle of the entire body of Roman public law, cf. Fustel de Coulanges, "Histoire des inst.i.tutions politiques et privees de l'ancienne France," vol. I., book II., ch. I, p.66 and following pages.]

[Footnote 2336: Read the "Not.i.tia dignitatum tam civilium quam militarium in partibus orientis et occidentis." It is the imperial almanac for the beginning of the fifth century. There are eleven ministers at the centre, each with his bureaux, divisions, subdivisions and squads of superposed functionaries,]

[Footnote 2337: Cf. Piranesi's engravings.]

[Footnote 2338: Cf., among other clues see Dante's: "De Monarchia".]

[Footnote 2339: We can trace in Napoleon's brain and date the formation of this leading idea. At first, it is simply a cla.s.sic reminiscence, as with his contemporaries; but suddenly it takes a turn and has an environment in his mind which is lacking in theirs, and which prevents the idea from remaining a purely literary phrase. From the beginning he speaks of Rome in the fashion of a Rienzi. (Proclamation of May 20, 1796.) "We are the friends of every people, and especially of the Brutuses, the Scipios, and of the great men whom we have chosen as models. To re-establish the Capitol, to place there with honor the statues of heroes who render it famous, to arouse the Roman people benumbed by centuries of slavery, such will be the fruit of our victories."--Fifteen months afterwards, on becoming master of Italy, his historic meditations turn into positive ambition henceforth, the possession of Italy and of the Mediterranean is to be with him a central and preponderant idea. (Letter to the Directory, Aug. 16, 1797, and correspondence on the subject of Corsica, Sardinia, Naples, and Genoa; letters to the pasha of Scutari, to the Maniotes, etc.) "The islands of Corfu, Zante, and Cephalonia are of more interest to us than all Italy put together.... The Turkish empire is daily tottering; the possession of these islands will enable us to support it as long as possible, or to take our portion of it. The time is not remote when we shall feel that, for the real destruction of England, we must get possession of Egypt."

Formerly, the Mediterranean was a Roman lake; it must become a French lake. (Cf. "Souvenirs d'un s.e.xagenaire," by Arnault, vol. IV., p.102, on his dream, in 1798, of making Paris a colossal Rome.)--At this same date, his conception of the State is fixed and wholly Roman.

(Conversations with Miot, June 1797, and letter to Talleyrand, Sep. 19, 1797.) "I do not see but one thing in fifty years well defined, and that is the sovereignty of the people.... The organization of the French nation is still only sketched out....The power of the government, with the full lat.i.tude I give to it, should be considered as really representing the nation." In this government, "the legislative power, without rank in the republic, deaf and blind to all around it, would not be ambitious and would no longer inundate us with a thousand chance laws, worthless on account of their absurdity." It is evident that he describes in antic.i.p.ation his future senate and legislative corps.--Repeatedly, the following year, and during the expedition into Egypt, he presents the Romans as an example to his soldiers, and views himself as a successor to Scipio and Caesar.--(Proclamation of June 22, 1798.): "Be as tolerant to the ceremonies enjoined by the Koran as you are for the religion of Moses and Jesus. The Roman legions protected all religions."--(Proclamation of May 10, 1798.) "The Roman legions that you have often imitated but not yet equaled fought Carthage in turn on this wall and in the vicinity of Zama."--Carthage at this time is England: his hatred of this community of merchants which destroys his fleet at Aboukir, which forces him to raise the siege of Saint-Jean d'Acre, which holds on to Malta, which robs him of his substance, his patrimony, his Mediterranean, is that of a Roman consul against Carthage; it leads him to conquer all western Europe against her and to "resuscitate the empire of the Occident." (Note to Otto, his amba.s.sador at London, Oct.. 23, 1802.)--Emperor of the French, king of Italy, master of Rome, suzerain of the Pope, protector of the confederation of the Rhine, he succeeds the German emperors, the t.i.tularies of the Holy Roman Empire which has just ended in 1806; he is accordingly the heir of Charlemagne and, through Charlemagne, the heir of the ancient Caesars.--In fact, he reproduces the work of the ancient Caesars by a.n.a.logies of imagination, situation and character, but in a different Europe, and where this posthumous reproduction can be only an anachronism.]

[Footnote 2340: "Correspondance," note for M. Cretet, minister of the interior, April 12, 1808.]

[Footnote 2341: Metternich, "Memoires," I., 107 (Conversations with Napoleon,, 1810): "I was surprised to find that this man, so wonderfully endowed, had such completely false ideas concerning England, its vital forces and intellectual progress. He would not admit any ideas contrary to his own, and sought to explain these by prejudices which he condemned."--Cf. Forsyth, "History of the Captivity of Napoleon at Saint-Helena," III., 306, (False calculations of Napoleon at Saint-Helena based on his ignorance of the English parliamentary system,) and Stanislas Girardin, III., 296, (Words of the First Consul, Floreal 24, year XI, quoted above.)]

[Footnote 2342: Cf., amongst other doc.u.ments, his letter to Jerome, King of Westphalia, October 15, 1807, and the const.i.tution he gives to that kingdom on that date, and especially t.i.tles 4 to 12: "The welfare of your people concerns me, not only through the influence it may exercise on your fame and my own, but likewise from the point of view of the general European system.... Individuals who have talent and are not n.o.ble must enjoy equal consideration and employment from you. ... Let every species of serf.a.ge and of intermediary lien between the sovereign and the lowest cla.s.s of people be abolished. The benefits of the code Napoleon, the publicity of proceedings, the establishment of juries, will form so many distinctive characteristics of your monarchy."--His leading object is the suppression of feudalism, that is to say, of the great families and old historic authorities. He relies for this especially on his civil code: "That is the great advantage of the code;... it is what has induced me to preach a civil code and made me decide on establishing it." (Letter to Joseph, King of Naples, June 5, 1806.)--"The code Napoleon is adopted throughout Italy. Florence has it, and Rome will soon have it." (Letter to Joachim, King of the Two Sicilies, Nov. 27, 1808.)--"My intention is to have the Hanseatic towns adopt the code Napoleon and be governed by it from and after the 1st of January."--The same with Dantzic: "Insinuate gently and not by writing to the King of Bavaria, the Prince-primate, the grand-dukes of Hesse-Darmstadt and of Baden, that the civil code should be established in their states by suppressing all customary law and confining themselves wholly to the code Napoleon." (Letter to M. de Champagny, Oct. 31, 1807.)--"The Romans gave their laws to their allies. Why should not France have its laws adopted in Holland?... It is equally essential that you should adopt the French monetary system." (Letter to Louis, King of Holland, Nov. 13, 1807.)--To the Spaniards: "Your nephews will honor me as their regenerator." (Allocution addressed to Madrid Dec. 9, 1808.)--"Spain must be French. The country must be French and the government must be French." (Roederer, III., 529, 536, words of Napoleon, Feb. 11, 1809.)--In short, following the example of Rome, which had Latinized the entire Mediterranean coast, he wanted to render all western Europe French. The object was, as he declared, "to establish and consecrate at last the empire of reason and the full exercise, the complete enjoyment of every human faculty." (Memorial.)]